Lucasfilm’s revival of Willow as a Disney+ series was not initially well received by fans of the franchise. With the titular sorcerer, played once again by Warwick Davis, not appearing for most of the opening episode and whole new cast of mostly young, trendy and strangely modern-speaking characters to become acquainted with, many fans of the 1988 movie immediately review-bombed the movie on Rotten Tomatoes and IMdB. However, with this week’s final episode those who stuck with the season to the end have now given their opinion on the show as a whole, which has seen the audience score leap from a lowly 24% up to a current 54%.
The release of Willow on Disney+ was met with a wall of negative reviews from audiences when the first episodes were released. However, this fell into the current trend of series being judged on one or two episodes of an eight to ten episode season. Willow does get off to a slow start, but it could be argued that this is to allow the new characters to be introduced, the world explained to those unfamiliar with the original movie, and a sense of “a novel in TV form” to be established. While many were unwilling to give the series a chance to expand its narrative, the latest wave of reviews has suggested a redemption for the show in its second half. Check out some of the latest reviews below.
Do Weekly Release Schedules Cause Fans To Abandon Shows Too Early?
Disney+
For the last several years, Netflix’s strategy of dropping entire seasons at once to be binge-watched in one go became a norm for the world of streaming. However, in a bid to keep subscriber numbers up, more and more streamers have moved to an old network style of weekly release for big shows like Disney+’s Star Wars and Marvel shows.
Although this does mean that fans have to endure a week of waiting for the conclusion of cliff-hanger moments, and get a longer lasting experience, there are many viewers who seem to want the opening episodes to fire off all of its guns and are unwilling to allow a series to really get underway before dropping a review.
This seems to have been the reason Willow’s initial audience reviews were so bad. Although many had issues with the writing, other complaints about the slow build of the story have mostly evaporated over time and the finale has seemingly done enough to change the minds of some of the show’s critics. Whether that will be enough to get the fantasy series a second season is something that only time will tell, but the ending tease of the finale suggests that there are plans in place of where the story will go over at least two more seasons if the option is available.
For its faults, including some dubious closing credits pop song choices, Willow seems to have ended on a high note that seemed almost impossible when it premiered its first episodes. It will likely not be too long before we know whether there will be more to come from the franchise, or whether its last huzzah was not quite enough to encourage Lucasfilm to take a chance on a second season.
